SANDPOINT — A half dozen conservation groups are seeking admittance to a legal fray over a state rule in Montana that requires mine developers to square up their reclamation bills on past projects before embarking on new ones.

Six groups, including the Rock Creek Alliance and Save Our Cabinets, are moving to intervene in a lawsuit filed by developers of the proposed Rock Creek and Montanore mining projects over a Montana Department of Environmental Quality determination that requires Hecla Mining Co. CEO Phillips J. Baker to settle cleanup costs on Pegasus Gold projects before the company can start new ones. Other groups asking to be party to the litigation include Earthworks, the Montana Environmental Information Center, the Clark Fork Coalition and Montana Conservation Voters.

The motion to intervene was filed Tuesday in Montana’s 19th District Court in Lincoln County.

“Allowing a mining company headed by a former top executive of Pegasus Gold to construct two massive mines beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness would be foolhardy and irresponsible,” Mary Costello, coordinator of Save Our Cabinets, said in a statement released on Wednesday. “Clean water unspoiled public lands and abundant wildlife are the legacy we want for future generations of Montanans.”

Conservation groups argue Pegasus declared bankruptcy in 1989 under Baker’s watch, which shifted responsibility for $80 million in cleanup costs for three mines from the company to state and federal taxpayers in Montana. Cleanup costs at the Zortman-Landusky mine have eclipsed $74 million and Montana DEQ expects water pollution problems at the site will costs more than $2 million annually in perpetuity.

The groups successfully petitioned Montana DEQ to enforce the state’s “bad actor” mining laws against Hecla, which prompted the company’s subsidiaries — RC Resources Inc., Troy Mine Inc. and Montanore Minerals Corp. — to file suit in state court to invalidate Montana DEQ’s invocation of the bad actor clause.

Hecla officials maintain that Baker did not direct or control Pegasus mining operations as the company’s chief financial officer and that the bad actor provision has been misapplied to Baker.

The conservation groups seek entry to the litigation on grounds that they have substantial interests in the lawsuit which could be harmed without intervention. They further contend that neither Hecla’s subsidiaries nor MDEQ do not adequately represent those interests.

“Indeed while, DEQ has taken appropriate action under the (state’s Metal Mine Reclamation Act), bad actor provisions to halt development of the Rock Creek and Montanore mines in the challenged determinations, DEQ has issued multiple authorizations for these projects under other statutory authority,” Earthjustice counsels Katherine K. O’Brien and Timothy J. Preso said in the motion to intervene.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.